Semitic Action

Created in 1956, the group's key members were Uri Avnery, Natan Yellin-Mor, and Boaz Evron,{{Cite book |last=Fiedler |first=Lutz |title=Matzpen. A History of Israeli Dissidence |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |year=2020 |isbn=978-1-4744-5117-8 |pages=180–188 |chapter=From Hebrew Nation to Semitic Action}} with other members including Maxim Ghilan, Shalom Cohen, and Amos Kenan.{{cite book|last=Beinin|first=Joel|title=Was the Red Flag Flying There? Marxist Politics and the Arab-Israeli Conflict in Egypt and Israel 1948-1965|publisher=University of California Press|year=1990|pages=151}} Joel Beinin describes the group as "a political expression of the Canaanite movement" which "advocated that Hebrew-speaking Israelis cut their ties with the Jewish diaspora and integrate into the Middle East as natives of the region on the basis of an anticolonialist alliance with its indigenous Arab inhabitants."Beinin, Joel (1998). [http://www.escholarship.org/editions/view?docId=ft2290045n&chunk.id=s1.6.42&toc.depth=1&toc.id=ch6&brand=eschol;query=%22semitic%20action%22#1 The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics, and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora]. University of California Press. pp. 166

In 1958 the group published a platform, titled "The Hebrew Manifesto." It described the "Hebrew nation" in Israel as a new entity, albeit one linked to the Jewish diaspora, and called for moving beyond outmoded Zionist ideas that were now holding back the nation's development.{{Citation needed|date=July 2019}} It put forward a program of secularism, complete civic equality between Jews and Arabs, support for anti-colonial movements, and a relationship with the diaspora based on national interest rather than ethnic, religious, or cultural ties.{{cite book|last=Shatz|first=Adam|title=Prophets Outcast: a Century of Dissident Jewish Writing About Zionism and Israel|publisher=NationBooks|year=2004|pages=209|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DM3gsuK2pIEC&pg=PA211 | isbn=978-1-56025-509-3}}{{cite book|last=Bligh|first=Alexander|title=The Israeli Palestinians: an Arab minority in the Jewish State|publisher=Routledge|year=2003|pages=234|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_1OBhi0l4OkC&pg=PA234 | isbn=978-0-7146-8345-4}} Jacob Shavit writes that the manifesto emerged from the meeting of three groups: former Canaanites, former Lehi members who had moved to the Left, and Avnery and his associates, who Shavit describes as "neither Left nor Right."{{Citation needed|date=July 2019}}

The group published a journal, Etgar ({{langx|he|אתגר}}, "Challenge"), edited by Yellin-Mor, weekly or biweekly from April 1960 until March 1967.Shavit 150, 164 It also attempted to run for the Knesset.Shavit 150 One of its founders, Yaakov Yeredor (a former Lehi member), represented the Arab nationalist group al-Ard in three of its trials.Harris, Ron. "[http://law.bepress.com/expresso/eps/349 A Case Study in the Banning of Political Parties: The Pan-Arab Movement El Ard and the Israeli Supreme Court]" (August 22, 2004). bepress Legal Series. Working Paper 349. p. 48.Lahav, Pnina. [http://www.escholarship.org/editions/view?docId=ft1z09n7hr&chunk.id=nsd0e3905&toc.depth=1&toc.id=endnotes&brand=eschol;query=%22semitic%20action%22#1 Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century]. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.

In December 1960 several members of Semitic Action (Avnery, Yellin-Mor, Ghilan, Cohen, and Kenan) created the Israeli Committee for a Free Algeria, a group supportive of the FLN in the Algerian War, in opposition to Israel's official policy.{{cite journal|last=Laskier|first=Michael M.|date=Summer 2001|title=Israel and Algeria amid French Colonialism and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1954-1978|journal=Israel Studies|volume=6|issue=2|pages=4|doi=10.1353/is.2001.0017}} The impetus for this decision came from Henri Curiel, who had introduced Avnery to members of the FLN and suggested to him that an independent Algeria would repay Israeli support by becoming Israel's first friend in the region.

Semitic Action was revived in early 2011 as a grassroots peace movement by activists seeking what they call "a revolutionary alternative to foreign-backed organizations that only exacerbate local frictions and bring the peoples of our region further from genuine peace."

The new Semitic Action describes itself as "an Israel-based movement seeking to unite the indigenous peoples of the Middle East against the devastating influence of foreign powers in our region and the local conflicts created by the pursuit of their interests.{{cite web |title=Homepage |url=http://www.semiticaction.org.il/home/ |publisher=Semitic Action |accessdate=20 August 2018}} Since its resurrection, the movement has organized meetings between Palestinians and Israeli settlers in the West Bank,{{Cite web|url=http://www.indynewsisrael.com/israeli-palestinian-activists-meet-in-hizme|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425233543/http://www.indynewsisrael.com/israeli-palestinian-activists-meet-in-hizme|url-status=dead|archive-date=2012-04-25|title=Israeli & Palestinian Activists Meet in Hizme{{!}} Indy News Israel|date=2012-04-25|access-date=2019-07-07}} initiated campaigns to raise support for an independent Kurdistan{{Cite web|url=http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/225287#.TszkGoCqTQo|title=Activists Launch Campaign for Free Kurdistan|website=Israel National News|date=23 November 2011 }}{{Cite web|url=http://www.indynewsisrael.com/us-turkey-to-cooperate-against-kurds|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425234258/http://www.indynewsisrael.com/us-turkey-to-cooperate-against-kurds|url-status=dead|archive-date=2012-04-25|title=US, Turkey to Cooperate Against Kurds{{!}} Indy News Israel|date=2012-04-25|access-date=2019-07-07}} and promoted a unified front of indigenous peoples against foreign political influences in the Middle East. The movement has also been vocal against westernization,{{Cite web|url=http://www.indynewsisrael.com/arab-jewish-unity-against-shortened-workweek|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130128185131/http://www.indynewsisrael.com/arab-jewish-unity-against-shortened-workweek|url-status=dead|archive-date=2013-01-28|title=Arab-Jewish Unity Against Shortened Workweek{{!}} Indy News Israel|date=2013-01-28|access-date=2019-07-07}} globalization,{{Cite web|url=http://www.indynewsisrael.com/activists-organizing-against-mcdonalds-at-masada|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130128184735/http://www.indynewsisrael.com/activists-organizing-against-mcdonalds-at-masada|url-status=dead|archive-date=2013-01-28|title=Activists Organizing Against McDonald's at Masada{{!}} Indy News Israel|date=2013-01-28|access-date=2019-07-07}} pro-Israel support from the American Christian right,{{Cite web|url=http://www.indynewsisrael.com/activists-oppose-becks-jerusalem-rally|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130128184218/http://www.indynewsisrael.com/activists-oppose-becks-jerusalem-rally|url-status=dead|archive-date=2013-01-28|title=Activists Oppose Beck's Jerusalem Rally{{!}} Indy News Israel|date=2013-01-28|access-date=2019-07-07}} Islamophobia in Israeli society,{{Cite web|url=http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/225193#.TswT14CqTQp|title=Peace Activists Slam MK for Attempts to Silence Muezzin|website=Israel National News|date=22 November 2011 }} capitalism{{Cite web|url=http://www.indynewsisrael.com/leef-group-calls-for-peoples-strike|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425234947/http://www.indynewsisrael.com/leef-group-calls-for-peoples-strike|url-status=dead|archive-date=2012-04-25|title=Leef Group Calls for Peoples Strike{{!}} Indy News Israel|date=2012-04-25|access-date=2019-07-07}} and the funding of local political organizations by foreign governments.{{Cite web|url=http://www.indynewsisrael.com/report-details-british-funding-for-local-anti-zionists|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120503003739/http://www.indynewsisrael.com/report-details-british-funding-for-local-anti-zionists|url-status=dead|archive-date=2012-05-03|title=Report Details British Funding for Local Anti-Zionists{{!}} Indy News Israel|date=2012-05-03|access-date=2019-07-07}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.indynewsisrael.com/security-forces-raid-migron-heights|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140330084626/http://www.indynewsisrael.com/security-forces-raid-migron-heights|url-status=dead|archive-date=2014-03-30|title=Security Forces Raid Migron Heights{{!}} Indy News Israel|date=2014-03-30|access-date=2019-07-07}}

{{reflist}}

• Fiedler, Lutz (2020), "From Hebrew Nation to Semitic Action", in: Matzpen. A History of Israeli Dissidence, Edinburgh University Press, pp. 180-180.
• {{cite book|last=Shavit|first=Jacob|authorlink=Jacob Shavit|title=The New Hebrew Nation: a Study in Israeli Heresy and Fantasy|publisher=Routledge|year=1987}}

• [http://www.semiticaction.org.il/ Semitic Action website]

Category:Political organizations based in Israel

Category:1956 establishments in Israel

Category:Canaanites (movement)

Category:Lehi (militant group)